Photos by Amanda Lucier/The Guardian in Cottage Grove, Oregon
Hi this is Ava from the Guardian’s audience team. We wanted to share a photo from a story we published today about Juanita Avila, a 47-year-old shop owner, who was dragged out of her van, arrested and detained by ICE – all while she had her green card in her pocket.
The moment 19-year-old Emely Agustin spotted the group of masked immigration agents tackling a woman facedown on the pavement, her heart dropped.
She saw the woman’s red jacket.
“Oh my fucking God. That’s my mom!” she screamed.
It was the morning of 5 November in Cottage Grove, in central Oregon, and masked officers with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had dragged Juanita Avila out of her van. The agents pinned her down as she cried out for her daughter, who started filming. Juanita, a 47-year-old legal permanent resident, had her green card in her pocket, but officers handcuffed and detained her.
“I was really scared. I couldn’t stop shaking,” Emely recalled in a recent interview.
“It was like they were trying to kidnap me,” added Juanita.
The mother and daughter were speaking out for the first time since Juanita’s arrest became part of a court case that secured a major victory for immigrants’ rights in Oregon. The lawsuit challenged ICE’s tactic of detaining people without warrants or probable cause, a practice advocates say has fueled widespread racial profiling and chaotic arrests.
Last month, a federal judge sided with the plaintiffs and issued a preliminary injunction blocking ICE agents in Oregon from continuing their “arrest first, justify later” tactics, as lawyers labeled it. The judge said ICE’s conduct had been “brutal and violent”, saying agents’ arrest strategy “systematically violates federal law and individual constitutional rights”.
![image showing [OC] Juanita Avila, an Oregon shop owner, was arrested by ICE with her green card in her pocket](f715a3d5-2c27-5e58-85c7-9f1974233a86.jpg)
guardian on March 6th, 2026 at 18:29 UTC »
Photos by Amanda Lucier/The Guardian in Cottage Grove, Oregon
Hi this is Ava from the Guardian’s audience team. We wanted to share a photo from a story we published today about Juanita Avila, a 47-year-old shop owner, who was dragged out of her van, arrested and detained by ICE – all while she had her green card in her pocket.
From our story:
The moment 19-year-old Emely Agustin spotted the group of masked immigration agents tackling a woman facedown on the pavement, her heart dropped.
She saw the woman’s red jacket.
“Oh my fucking God. That’s my mom!” she screamed.
It was the morning of 5 November in Cottage Grove, in central Oregon, and masked officers with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had dragged Juanita Avila out of her van. The agents pinned her down as she cried out for her daughter, who started filming. Juanita, a 47-year-old legal permanent resident, had her green card in her pocket, but officers handcuffed and detained her.
“I was really scared. I couldn’t stop shaking,” Emely recalled in a recent interview.
“It was like they were trying to kidnap me,” added Juanita.
The mother and daughter were speaking out for the first time since Juanita’s arrest became part of a court case that secured a major victory for immigrants’ rights in Oregon. The lawsuit challenged ICE’s tactic of detaining people without warrants or probable cause, a practice advocates say has fueled widespread racial profiling and chaotic arrests.
Last month, a federal judge sided with the plaintiffs and issued a preliminary injunction blocking ICE agents in Oregon from continuing their “arrest first, justify later” tactics, as lawyers labeled it. The judge said ICE’s conduct had been “brutal and violent”, saying agents’ arrest strategy “systematically violates federal law and individual constitutional rights”.
Read the full story on the Guardian for free here.
SaltyShawarma on March 6th, 2026 at 18:49 UTC »
Thank god for international media or else we might never get real facts in the states right now.
freemanposse on March 6th, 2026 at 19:25 UTC »
They keep telling us they just want them to do it the "right way", and then they keep grabbing people who did it the right way.